Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	draw_v	iron_n	loadstone_n	1,525	5	13.0457	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57647	Arcana microcosmi, or, The hid secrets of man's body discovered in an anatomical duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the parts thereof : as also, by a discovery of the strange and marveilous diseases, symptomes & accidents of man's body : with a refutation of Doctor Brown's Vulgar errors, the Lord Bacon's natural history, and Doctor Harvy's book, De generatione, Comenius, and others : whereto is annexed a letter from Doctor Pr. to the author, and his answer thereto, touching Doctor Harvy's book De Generatione / by A.R.	Ross, Alexander, 1591-1654.	1652 (1652)	Wing R1947; ESTC R13878	247,834	298

may be true For 1. the shape why may not this plan● resemble a Lamb as well as that Indian fruit described by Nic. Monardes resembles a Dragon so artificially painted by nature as if it were done by a painter 2. Why may it not have a Downy or Woolly skin as well as Peaches Quinces Chesnuts and other fruits which are covered with a Down called Lanugo by the Poet 3. Why may it not bleed as well as that Tree we mentioned but now called Draco from the shape of the Dragon which its fruit hath the juice of this Tree from the resemblance is called the blood of the Dragon well known in Physick for its astringent and corroborating quality 4. Why may it not have some animal motions as well as that plant called Pudica which contracts it leaves when you touch or come neer it and dilates them again when you depart Or that Tree in the Isle of Cimbub on whose leaves falling on the ground crawl up and down like Worms they have saith Scaliger Exerc. 112. two little feet on each side if they be touched they run away One of these leaves was kept alive eight days in a platter which still moved it selfe when it was touched V. That Tigers are swift creatures is affirmed by all the Ancients but denyed by Bontius Because as the Doctor cites him those in Iava are slow and tardigradous By the same reason he may infer that our sheep are as big as Asses and doe carry burthens because the sheep of America are such or that the African Lions are not fierce big and red as they are described because the American are nor so for the Indian animals differ much from ours although they be the same species Though then the Indian Tygers be slow the African or European may be swift Again the Doctor doubts that the story of the Remora may be unreasonably amplified The story is that it stays ships under sail This saith Scaliger is as possible as for the Loadstone to draw Iron for neither the resting of the one nor moving of the other proceeds from an apparent but from an occult vertue for as in the one there is an hid principle of motion so there is in the other a secret principle of quiescence CHAP. IX 1. Lions afraid of Cocks Antipathies cause fear and horror in divers animals 2. Spiders kill Toads the diversities of Spiders 3. The Cocks Egge and Basilisk Divers sorts of Basilisks 4. Amphisbana proved and the contrary objections answered 5. The Vipers generation by the death of the mother proved and objections to the contrary refuted THat the Lion is afraid of the Cock is doubted by the Doctor book 3. c. 24. because Camerarius speaks of one lion that leapt down into a yard where were Cocks and Hens which he ate up But the same Camerarius Medit. part 1. c. 12. in the same alledged place sheweth that this fear of the Lion is justified both by experience and many eye-witnesses And surely this is no more improbable then for a Lion to be afraid at the fight of a fire or for an Elephant to be afraid at the sight of a Hog which the Romans knew when they drove an Herd of Swine among the Enemies Elephants by which means they got the Victory of Pyrrhus So much afraid is the Elephant of an Hog that if he hear him gruntle he will run away And who would think that a Monky should be afraid and shake at the sight of a Snail that Erasmus in amicitia tels us he saw one which at the sight of a Snail was so affrighted that he fell to vomiting so as the owner could scarce keep him alive Who can give a reason why the scratching upon brasse or other hard metals should distemper the teeth and in some men force urine Why are some men whom I know affrighted at the sight of a Toad nay of a Frog There is among Horses in the same stable among oxen in the same stall among children in the same school an antipathy It is no wonder then that so magnanimous a creature as the Lion should be afraid at the sight of a Cock when the couragious horse startles at the sight of a block and the Elephant will not touch the straw which the mouse hath touched Now for that Lion which killed the Cock and his Hens I deny not but it may be true yet hence we cannot conclude that the Lion is not afraid of the Cock For a speciall antipathy may by accident faile in some individuals A particular exception must not overthrow an universall Rule or Maxime Sheep are generally afraid of Dogs yet I have seen a Sheep beat a Dog Men generally hate Serpents yet some will keep them in their bosomes yea ●an them And it may be that this Lion was mad and so the phantasie distempered for they are subject to be mad because of their heat or else he was a hungred and hunger we know makes even men transgresse the common lawes of Nature and eat those things which otherwise they hate II. That Spiders will kill Toads is recorded in Story yet the Doctor 3. Book c. 26 in his Glasse found that the Toad swallowed down the Spiders which he included This may be true and the other untrue For all Spiders are not venemous and those that are have their degrees of venome and so wee may say of Toads That Spiders have a more active poyson then the Toad is confessed by those who write of these insects For I read both in Ancient and Modern Writers that Spiders have poysoned Toads with their touch but never that any Toad poysoned a Spider for the Doctors Toad did not poyson but swallow the Spiders being impatient of hunger which it cannot endure so long as the Spider some whereof I have kept nine moneths without food in a glasse and then they were as nimble at the end of this time as when I put them first in Now that some of our Spiders are venemous I have observed for by chance one of my acquaintance bruised a Spider which had lighted on his face when he was in his bed and presently the place blistred and grew scabbed I have likewise found that the small bodied Spiders with long legs which as I think some call Spinners are more venemous then the big ones for I inclosed in a glasse some great black bodied Spiders with short legs with some of those small b●died long shanks which fell upon the big bodied Spiders and killed them Such is the venome of some spiders that they will crack a Venice glass as I have seen and Scaliger doth witness the same however the Doctor denies it III. That the Basilisk should proceed from a cock's egg is a conceit as monstrous as the brood it self saith the Doctor and yet presently after he grauts there may ensue some imperfect or monstrous production That cocks growing old and decrepid lay eggs or something like eggs on which they sit as hens do on theirs

this Tract the Doctor seemes sometimes to be in earnest and sometimes to speak-problematically or rather doubtfully But however this opinion cannot consist with reason for what can be more unreasonable then that the Noblest Animals should be conceived without any sensible corporeall Agent by meere imagination not of the brain but of the Womb For 1. If this be true that the Female can thus conceive and generate what need was there of the Male they are then uselesse in generation and fathers have no reason to provide for their wives children seeing the woman is the sole parent the man but a Cypher Why should there be any lawes against adultery and fornication seeing there can be no such sins If this doctrine be true what miracle was it for a virgin to conceive and bear a Son without the help of man seeing this is ordinary for the female as the Doctor faith to be prolificall without any sensible corporeall agents for the seed he saith is not received within the matrix But if I should grant him this which cannot be true yet he cannot deny but that the seminal vapour and prolificall spirit is conveyed thither by which the female is made pregnant if he grants this then there is a sensible corporeall agent though not so grosse as the earthy part of the seed If he deny this then it will follow that we are all produced without fathers and that there is no other sensible corporeall agent but the womb and so the fifth Commandement of honoring father should be put out seeing there is no such thing in nature Again if he saith there is no agent then it will follow that the effect can be produced without an efficient and an action without an actor If he he saith there is an agent but not corporeall then that agent must be either a spirit or an accident if a spirit then we are all the children of spirits not of corporeall parents and so man cannot have for his genus a corporeall substance And these spirits if created must be either Angels Demons or Souls which was the dreams of some ancient Hereticks long since condemned by Councels If again he saith that these agents are not spirits but accidents he will make us in a worse condition For man the Noblest of all creatures is the child of an accident therefore Aristotle should have placed man in the Categorie of quality rather then of substance But we know that no accident is operativ● but in and by the power of the principall agent Neither can an accident be conveyed into the womb without the subject in which it is inherent and therefore Iron touched without the Loadstone cannot draw Iron if the substance of the Loadstone were not imparted to it Hence we see that as the substance of the Loadstone in the Iron decayes so the vertue of attraction decayes likewise Again when he saith that the substance of the womb is like the constitution of the brain he speaks very improperly for neither is the substance of the one like the substance of the other the one being white spermatical and cold the other red sanguineal and hot nor can the substance of the one be like the constitution of the other these being indifferent predicaments between which there is no similitude nor is the constitution of the one like unto the constitution of the other as being of different temperaments and having different uses and suppose they were either of the same substance or constitution it will not follow that therefore they must have the same function The stomach and guts have the same substance and constitution so hath the brain and pith in the back bone yet they have not the same functions Again when he saith that what the fantasm or appetite is in the brain the same or its analogy is excited in the womb for the functions of both are called conceptions He speaks more improperly then before for he seems to make the fantasm and appetite one thing and to be both resident in the brain whereas the appetite is the inclination of the will and hath its residence in the heart the fantasm is the imaginary or fictitious object of the fantasie which this internal sense residing in the brains represents to it self neither of these is excited in the womb nor any thing like it for the womb is neither the seat of the fantasie nor hath it fit organs for it nor is it the seat of appetite except by this word he understands an inclination to conception or generation neither again is this a valid reason that because the functions of the womb and brain are called conceptions therefore they are the same for the conception of the womb is far different from that of the brain neither do they agree but equivocally and in name onely so this word conception is ascribed to the action of understanding Lastly though we can produce upon stone or timber or such like matter some shape or form like that Idea in our brain yet it will not follow that the species of the father in the womb can produce the like brood for I deny that the species or idea of the father is in the womb but in the brain this not that being the proper fea● of the fantasie which receiveth the species from the common sense and the imagination doth not alwayes work upon the seed or embryo nor doeth it produce any form it onely worketh sometimes and produceth but the accidental form whereas ordinarily both the essential and accidental forms are produced by the formative power of the seed or rather by the soul it self which fabricates its own mansion which soul lay potentially in the seed and is excited by the heat or rather innate property of the matrix To conclude it is as great absurdity to affirm that the female can be made pregnant by conceiving a general immateral idea as it was by some of the ancients to think that the Spanish Mares could as Aristotle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceive or be made pregnant by the Western wind and as the Poets saith Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis Exceptantque leves auras saepe sine ullis Conjugiis vento gravidae mirabile dictu The like fabulous impregnations we read of in Ravens by the north winde and in Partrages by bare imagination CHAP. IV. 1. My Lord Bacon's opinion confuted concerning the French disease 2. Concerning the expulsion of pellets out of guns 3. Of the wax candle burning in spirit of wine 4. Of the parts most nutritive in animals 5. Of the spirits in cold bodies 6. Of air fire water oyl whiteness the hands and feet 7. Of souls and spirits 8. Of visible objects and hearing 9. Of sounds and musick 10. Of singing birds descending species light 11. Ingrate objects and deafness with other passages HAving lighted lately upon two books the one of Doctor Harvie's De generatione animalium wherein he proves that all animals have their

the pole nor in reciting the instruments of Navigation doth he speak a word of this In no ancient Writer do we find this vertue mentioned nor so much as a name for it in Hebrew Greek or Latin neither do they mention the touching of their sun-dials with it besides Pliny saith the Islanders of Tapro●an or Sumatra because they cannot see the North carry with them in their ships certain small birds which being let loose by naturall instinct fly to the Land whether the Mariners direct their course after these guides this sheweth they were ignorant of the compa●s as Acosta Gomara Pancerol Salmuth and others do prove The Phoenicians and Sidonians were anciently the expertest Navigators of the world yet we find not that they had any knowledge of the compass the Carthagineans indeed by sea viewed all the coast of Mauritania yet they kept close by the shore and though ingenious men did live in old times and were inventors of many rarities yet some things they have left for posterity to finde whereof they were ignorant as Clocks Gun● Printing c. therefore the reasons of Lemnius are weak who thinks the Ancients knew the compass and no less infirm is ●he argument of Pineda taken from Solomons knowledge of all things for this word all in Scripture is taken for many and many is taken for all So Christ cured all diseases in S. Matthew that is many so all of those that sleep in the dust of the earth saith Daniel shall arise that is many Solomon then knew all things that is most things and more then other men but I do not think he knew the compasse or all the species of animals vegitables minerals people and places that are found at this day in America nor all the arts invented since nor all the supernaturall works of God His chief knowledge was politicall for government he knew not the future contingencies nor all the secrets in the earth and seas if he knew the polar verticity of the Loadstone then Adam also knew it for his knowledge far exceeded Solomons he gave names to all the creatures according to their natures he lived 930. years a fair time to get experience yet though Adam knew this it will not follow that the compass was used in his time or in Sol●mons either who knew that Copper and Brass did sound well yet Bels of Copper were not used in his time and whereas Pineda saith that God would not have so useful a thing as the compass hid from man so long I answer that Printing is no less useful which was not known till of late What was more usefull then the Preaching of the Gospel and Incarnation of Christ and yet hid many thousand years from the world God hath his own times to bestow his gifts on men ●or that fable of ships built without ir●n for fear they should be staied in the failing by the great store of Loadstones neer Calicut is ridiculous for our Europaean ships are continually tratficking that way and they perceive no such things To conclude then ships of old were guided being out of sight of Land not by the compasse but partly by the Tides partly by the Windes and partly by the Stars and Sea-birds and when all these failed they wandred up and down not knowing where they were as we see in AEnaeas his Navigation caecis erramus in undis nec meminisse viae media Palinurus in unda the like we may read in Saint Paules vojage II. The Ancients held that Goats bloud could soften the Adamant and yet resist the hardest hammers this is denied by the Doctor 2 Book c. 5 6 7. and his Lapidaries but their argument is not Logical our Diamonds are not softned by Goats bloud but are mastered by hammers therefore the Ancients Adamants were such All Adamants are not of the same kind for Pliny as we have already said reckoneth six sorts of them and I think it is no greater wonder for bloud to soften a stone then for water to harden a piece of Leather or a stick into a stone 2. He saith that though the substance of Gold be not sensibly immuted or its gravity at all decreased yet from thence vertue may proceed for a body may emit vertue without abatement of weight as is evident in the Loadstone Answ. An accident without a miracle if it be the same numerically cannot pass without the substance in which it is inherent nor can the substance be diminished but the gravity must also be abated Therefore if Gold in the Patients body loseth nothing of its substance and gravity it loseth no part of its vertue if the loss be insensible the vertue communicated to the patient i● insensible also and so he that swallows gold receives no good by it For where there is a cure there must be a sense and feeling of the cure As for the Loadstone if it imparts its vertue it parts also with its substance but in so small a quantity that its scarce perceptible but the gold ought to impart much vertue to cure the disease and consequently much of its substance which would be seen by the weight and the cure but neither is sensible and therefore no deperdition but imaginary 3. He cannot apprehend how an iron should grow red hot by motion since in swinging a red hot iron it wil grow cold Answ. That violent motions will excite heat and fire in hard bodies we have already shewed in divers examples Aristotle proves it by the example of Arrows whose Lead will melt with the heat and motion thereof in that part of the air which is near the fire de coelo l. 2. c. 7. Virgil confirms the same speaking of that Arrow which Acestes shot that it took fire in the motion Namque volans liquidis in nu●ibus arsit arundo signavitque viam flammis AEn 5. but when he saith that hot iron will grow cold by swinging I grant it because that heat in the iron is meerly accidental and from an external principle it wants pabulous aliment in the iron to maintain it therefore no wonder if encountring with the cold air it extinguish but take a bran or stick of fire and swing it about it will grow redder hotter and more fiery because there is not the bare accident of heat but th● substance of fire which is anima●ed and quickned by the motion of the air neither is it strange if the violent motion of an Arrow in hot weather and in that part of the aire which is neer the fiery element take fire where we see so many fiery Meteors ingendred But he saith that a bullet shot at paper or linen will not set them on fire it may be so because the bullet is not hot enough having moved but a little way and a smal time you cannot in a long time make paper or linen burn be the fi●e never so hot except they touch the flame 4. He will not believe that Coral is soft under water and hard